Vending machine



Juiy 31, 1934. Q R s M ms I 1,968,226

VENDING MACHINE Filed March 3, 1955 v 5 Sheets-Sheet l AAA Jttorneys July 31, 1934. c R slMPKlNS I 1,968,226

VENDING MACHINE Filed March 3, 1933 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Attorney y 1934. c. R. SIMPKINS 1,968,228

VENDING MACHINE Filed March a, 19.3 s Sheets-Sheet s Patented July 31, 1 934 TENT" FIE VENDING mom Application March 3, 1933, Serial No. 659,489

6 Claims. (01 221-146) My invention relates to vending machines, and has particular reference to a vending machine of the type in which candy or other articles of merchandise may be lifted from a dis- 5 play platform and passed to a delivery chute by means of a bucket or grab representative of a steam-shovel or similar machine.

In vending machines of the coin-operated type, various kinds of delivery apparatus have been employed for the purpose of grasping candy or other articles upon a platform and delivering them to a delivery chute.

One form of the delivering mechanism coinprises a clam shell bucket of the type representative of the digging-bucket used on fullsized digging machines, which are mounted Within the cabinet supporting the article platform in such manner as to be swung over the article-supporting section and dropped thereupon, closed, lifted, and then swung to a delivery chute and opened to deposit the. articles which have been grasped by' the bucket. 7

Such machines are usually provided not only with small articles, such as candy, but also with prizes of various types which are distributed throughout the article-supporting area and considerable skill is involved in grasping these prizes or special articles by providing adjusting means for the bucket so that the person operating the machine may determine where the bucket is going to fall,- thereby permitting him to select the particular articles which he desires to try to grasp with the bucket.

My invention, therefore, relates primarily to the adjusting devices for determining the position upon which the bucket will drop upon an article platform.

An object of the invention is to provide a bucket-grab supported upon a movable beam in which the beam may e swung through a horizontal arc to determine the right-hand or lefthand position at which the bucket will fall and in which the beam may also be adjusted in a vertical arc to determine the forward or rear position at which the bucket will fall.

Another object of the invention is to provide a device of the character set forth in the preced'ng paragraph, in which the adjustment'of the beam in the vertical arc is positively made by the person operating the machine while the adjusting of the horizontal plane is made by setting a stop for the beam, which beam is rotated by other power until it is stopped by the stop mechanism.

Another object of the'inv'ention is to provide a device of the character set forth in the preceding paragraphs, in which the same handle operable by the person operating the machine may be employed to eflfect both the vertical adjustment of the beam and also to effect the setto ting of the stop for the desired position upon which the bucket is to drop.

Another object of the invention is to provide a cabinet for a delivery mechanism as set forth in the preceding paragraphs in which'a delivery opening is provided at the exterior of the cabinet and the delivery area is provided with a glazed opening through which the article delivered may be viewed prior to its actual deposit in the delivery opening and in which the glass for the 10 opening may be inserted only when the section of the cabinet supporting the article is exposed.

Other objects of the invention will be apparent from an inspection of the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure 1 is a front elevational view of a cabinet showing the article platform and the delivery mechanism;

Figure 2 is an enlarged sectional view, taken along line II--II of Figure 1 and illustrating the 30 operating mechanism for the bucket and its beam;

Figure 3 is adetail front elevational view of the, rotating mechanism for the beam, and illustrating the stop mechanism for determining the 35 point at which the beam will stop in its horizontal rotation;

Figure 4 is a perspective view of the beam-adjusting mechanism and stop mechanism illustrating diagrammatically the operation of these 99 elements; v

Figure 5 is a plan view of the cam shaft and assembly employed to control the movement ofthe bucket; and g Figure 6 is a detail sectional view taken along line VI-VI of Figure 1, illustrating the manner of positioning the glass in the delivery opening on the machine.

Referring to the drawings, I have illustrated therein a cabinet -1 which is preferably divided 100 by means of horizontal partitions 2 and 3 into a lower compartment 4, a middle compartment 5 and an upper compartment 6. The partition 3 forms the bottomor base for an article-supporting platform upon which gnay be supported a number of pieces of candy 7, or other merchandise 8, which may be a heterogeneous collection of merchandise to test the skill of the person operating the machine.

The upper compartment 6 is provided with a no ans.-

hinged door 9 upon the front thereof and the door is provided with a glass 10, or other transparent material, which will permit a view of the article-supporting platform and the delivery mechanism contained in the cabinet section 6.

In like manner the side walls of the cabinet section 6 are preferably formed of glass so that the interior of this compartment may be readily viewed from either the front or the sides thereof. If desired, a light comprising a lamp 11 may be provided in this compartment for illuminating the same.

By referring particularly to Figures 1 and 2, it will be observed that the article-supporting platform 3 is provided with a metal liner 12 which extends upwardly toward the rear of the machine, as indicated at 13, to form an elevated shelf 14 representing the base for a delivery mechanism comprising a beam 15 pivoted upon a horizontal pivot 16 to a rotatable beam support 1'7 which projects through an opening 18 in the shelf 14 and is attached to the upper end of a shaft 19 so that rotation of the shaft 19 will cause the beam to swing through a horizontal arc while the beam 15 may be lifted and lowered to swing about its horizontal pivot 16 to thereby swing the upper end 20 of the beam toward the front and rear of the cabinet.

The beam support 17 is preferably provided with an upstanding post 21 employed for mounting the various pulleys necessary for training cords, chains, etc., thereover for the operation of the beam and the bucket; or other article-grasping device.

The bucket may be formed in any suitable shape, though I prefer the three-fingered grab type of bucket, such as is illustrated herein, as comprising three claws 22, 23 and 24, each of which is formed as a bellcrank, the outer leg of which is provided with a flattened surface 25 constituting the grab end of the claw, while the inner leg 26 of the bellcrank shape is pivoted as at 2'7 to a closing ring 28. The intermediate point 29 of the bellcrank shape of each of the claws is connected by means of the link 30 to a supporting ring 31 so that when the closing ring is moved toward the supporting ring the three claws 22, 23 and 24 will be moved toward each other to close the grab ends 25 toward each other and thus grasp articles thereby while, when the closing ring 28 is moved away from the supporting ring 31 the claws,will be moved to the open position, as illustrated in Figures 1 and 2. In order to accomplish the opening and closing of the grab, I mount the grab upon two cords B and C, the cord 13 being attached to the supporting ring 31, as indicated at 32, while the cord C (which may constitute a continuation of the cord B), extends down over a pulley 34 on the closing ring 28 and thence extends upwardly as the cord C. The cords B and C, respectively, are trained over a pair of pulleys 35 and 36 mounted ipon the upper end 20 of the beam 15 so that the bucket or grab hangs in vertical alignment with the upper end 20 of the grab at all times. The cords B and C extend from the pulleys 35 and 36 over a pair of pulleys 3'7 and 38, respectively, mounted upon across piece 39 upon the top of the supporting post 21 and thence extend downwardly through the partition 3 to connect, respectively, to a pair of levers 40 and 41. The levers 40 and 41 are mounted upon a common pivot 42 and are normally urged to an. elevated position by means of springs 42 and 43, respectively, one end of each of which connects with its associated lever and the other .end of which is secured to a suitable bracket 44 extended from and mounted upon the back 45 of the cabinet 1. Thus when the levers 40 and 41 are lifted simultaneously under the influence of their springs, both cords B and C will be paid-out and the bucket will move downwardly toward the article platform, while in the open position. If the two levers are moved downwardly simultaneously, the bucket will be lifted without changing its opened or closed position. However, if the bucket is in the open position, and the lever 41 is moved downwardly while the lever 40 is stationary, or, if the lever 41 is moved downwardly more rapidly than the lever 40, the cord C will be tightened more than will the cord B, and will lift the closing ring 28 to close the bucket.

In like manner, if the bucket is in the closed position and the lever 41 is moved upwardly more than the lever 40, the cord C will be slackened and thebucket will be opened since the weight of the closure ring 28 is sufllcient tov open the claws whenever the cord C is slackened.

In order to operate the bucket to lift, lower, open, and close in the proper sequence, the levers 40 and 41 are arranged to be operated by means of a shaft 45 upon which is mounted a pair of cams 46 and 47 engaging the levers 41 and 40, respectively. The curvature of these cams, their high and low speeds, etc., are properly arranged on the shaft so that a complete rotation of the shaft will cause first an elevation of both levers 40 and 41 at the same time to drop the bucket upon the platform; second, a depression of the lever 41 without movement of the lever 40 to tighten the cord C and cause the bucket to close and grasp the articles; third, both levers 41 and 40 will be lifted simultaneously to lift the bucket; and fourth, the lever 41 will be lifted relative to the lever 40 to open the bucket and discharge the articles.

By referring particularly to Figure 1, it will be observed that the bucket and beam are normally swung toward the right-hand side of the cabinet section 6 so that the bucket A is normally positioned in vertical alignment with the entrance opening 50 of a deposit chute 51 which extends downwardly to an article delivery opening 52 in the front plate 53 constituting a section of the front wall of the cabinet for the compartment or section 5 of the cabinet.

To normally position the bucket and beam in this position, the beam support shaft 19 is pivotally mounted upon the bracket 40 as by means of passing the shaft through suitably aligned openings 54 and 55 in the bracket and maintaining the shaft therein by means of collars 56 surrounding and attached to the shaft 19. The shaft 19 is fitted with a crankarm 57 which extends toward the front of the machine and has a link 58 attached thereto, as indicated at 59, one end of the link being connected to one arm 60 of a bellcrank 61 pivotedat 62 to the bracket 44, the other arm 63 thereof being connected by means of a link 64 to one end of the lever 65 pivoted at 66 in such position as to ride upon a third cam 6'7 mounted upon the shaft 45 Thus when the cam 67 is in the position illustrated in Figure 2 the lever 55 will be lifted and through the links, bellcrank and crankarm 57 will positively hold the beam in its extreme right-hand horizontal position with the bucket over thedelivery chute.

To cause the bucket to swing away from the delivery chute and over the article platform ready to be dropped upon articles thereon, a

' spring 68 is connected to the outer end of the crankarm 57, the opposite end of the spring being connected to some exterior part of the cabinet so as to normally urge the crankarm to the left of the cabinet so that'as soon as pressure upon the lever 65 is released (by rotation of the cam 67) the spring will tend to swing the beam support 17 to the left to follow the redirection of the cam 67. Thus as the cam 67 rotates the spring will swing the beam and bucket across the article platform to an extreme left-hand position and then, as the shaft 45 continues to rotate, the cam 67 will again press upwardly upon the lever 65 and will cause the bucket to swing back to the delivery chute 50 at the end of the complete rotation of the shaft 45; that is, at the end of the cycle of operations of the machine.

In order to permit a person to operate the machine to determine where the beam and bucket will stop in their horizontal movement across the article platform so as to permit him to select the particular article upon which the bucket will drop, a stop mechanism is employedwhich includes a handwheel 69 connected through a shaft 70 to a friction coupling 71.

The friction coupling 71 is connected to a shaft 72 mounted upon a bracket 73 secured to the back wall of the cabinet, the extreme end of the shaft 72 having a crankarm 74 mounted thereon and connecting to a lever 75 pivoted as at 76, the opposite end of the vlever being connected as indicated at 77, to a vertical link 78 mounted in guides 79 for vertical sliding movement as th lever 75 is moved by the crankarm 74.

By referring particularly to Figures 2, 3, 4 and 5, it will be observed that the link 78 has rigidly connected thereto a ratchet 80 having a plurality of ratchet teeth 81 formed thereon, the teeth of the ratchet being disposed at a considerable angle to the vertical. It will also be observed that the ratchet 80 is positioned in horizontal alignment with a stop lever 82 rigidly secured to the beam supporting shaft 19 and movable therewith. The right-hand face of the stop lever is formed with a V-shape or knife edge to cooperate with the ratchet teeth 81 on the ratchet 80 so that as the shaft 19 is rotated under the influence of its'spring 68 it will be free to move until the stop lever 82 engages one of the teeth of the ratchet 80 and then, though the cam 67 may move further away from its lever 65, the beam support will be stopped positively so that it cannot move further to the left. Thus by rotating the hand-wheel 69 the angularly disposed ratchet 80 will be moved up or down relative to the level of the stop lever 82 so that when the ratchet is in its lowermost position it will present its teeth furthest to the left andthus stop the beam when it has moved only a slight distance from alignment with the delivery chute 50, while when the ratchet is in its uppermost position it will present its most right-hand teeth to the stop leverv 82 and thus permit the beam to swing to an extreme left-hand position before the pivot 82 will be engaged. Thus by providing a large number of teeth'81 it will be apparent that the beam will be stopped in any one of a .large number of positions between its extreme above the article platform 3 and rigidly mount thereon a forwardly projecting bar 84, the outer end of which is connected by means of a rod 85 to an indicator lever 86 upon the shaft 87 of which is mounted a pointer 88 movable over a dial 89 having calibrations thereon and suitable legends thereon to cooperate with the pointer 88 so that by rotating the position of the pointer upon the dial the person will know whether the beam will stop at a right-hand position, a center position, a left-hand position, or any one of the number of positions intermediate these points.

It will be observed at this point that the movement of the handwheel69 does not actually move as the machine operates.

While the foregoing hand setting mechanism 2 will permit the person to determine the amount of horizontal movement, permitted the beam, it is desirable that he should also have some control over the forward and rearward movements of the bucket so that when he has selected, for example, to stop the beam in the center of the article platform he will be able to determine what position in the vertical plane through the center' of the platform the bucket will fall. ,To accomplish this, the shaft 72, operated by the handwheel 69, has secured thereto a chain 90 so that as the handwheel is rotated the chain will be swung up upon the shaft 72 or unwound therefrom. The chain 90 extends over a guide pulley 91 mounted at the rear of the cabinet, and thence extends over a pulley 92 mounted upon the supporting post 21 to be attached to the beam 15, as indicated at 93, so that rotation of the handwheel 69 in one direction will wind up on the chain 90 and will draw the beam 15 to its horizontal pivot 16 to align the outer end 21 of the beam with the rear of the article platform or when the wheel 69 is rotated in the opposite direction will allow the beam to swing outwardly to align the end 20 thereof with the forward section of the article platform.

At this point it will be noted that the rotation of the handwheel 69 will positively move the beam in a vertical arc to actually position the beam at the desired forward or rearward position so that when the beam is swung horizontally the bucket will travel in an arc near the rear of the machine or near the front of the machine, or at some intermediate point dependent upon the setting of the position of the beam.

The shaft 45 ,.actuation of which causes -the machine to carry out its cycle of operations, is driven by a motor 94 which is connected through suitable reduction gearing 95 and 96 to rotate the shaft 45. The motor is illustrated as being an electric motor connected in a suitable circuit to be controlled by a control switch 97 which is in turn set into operation by means of a coin-controlled mechanism 98 which may be of any suitable type, though I prefer to employ the usual coin-actuated slide 99 normally locked bymeans of a latch 100 to prevent the slide from being pressed inwardly of the machine until a coin is deposited upon the slide. The slide 99 cooperates with a coin deposit chute 101 so that when it is pressed inwardly and carries a coin with it, it will drop the coin 102 upon the end of a rod 103 pivoted at 104. The portion of the rod 103 on the opposite side of the pivot 104 is provided with a cam surface 105 upon which rides an arm 106 having a pin 107 thereon normally engaging a tooth 108 upon a lever 109 upon which the switch 97 is mounted.

The switch 97 is illustrated as being of the mercury contact type so that when the switch 97 is tipped from the position shown in Fig. 2 to an inverted position, as by swinging of the lever 109, the switch will close its contacts. Thus when a coin falls upon the rod 103 the cam 105 will lift the arm 106 to move the pin 107 out of engagement with the notch 108 and allow a spring 110 to swing the lever 109 in a clockwise direction and thus cause the switch 97 to close the contacts.

When this operation occurs the motor will start into operation and carry the shaft 45 through one complete rotation and then it should stop and in order to accomplish this result I provide a crankarm 111 on the shaft 45*, the outer end of which engages through a slotted link 112 which is pivoted at 113, the upper end of which is connected as at 114 to the arm 106 'so that as the shaft 45 makes a complete rotation it first presses the arm 106 forwardly (to the right as viewed in Fig. 2) to a position to re-engage the notch 108 (which at this time is in a right-hand position) and then, as the shaft 45 moves to the completion of its rotation the arm 106 will be reattracted to the left to pull the lever 109 in a counter-clockwise direction and thus swing the switch 97 to an open contact position, such as is shown in Fig. 2.

The operation of the machine thus far described includes the initial setting by the handwheel of the beam in'a forward or rearward position by actually moving the beam to the desired position and of setting the ratchet to stop the horizontal swinging of the beam at the desired point. Then the coin may be deposited in the coin collection chute to start the motor into operation and the motor will operate the machine through the following cycle of operations:

.1. The initial rotation of the shaft 45*- will move the cam 67 from under the lever 65, thus permitting the spring 68 to swing the beam to the desired position where it is stopped by the ratchet 80-; i

2. Further rotation of the shaft 45 will move the cams 46 and 47 to allow the levers '40 and 41 to both move upward. simultaneously, thus dropping the bucket into the desired position upon'the article platform while the bucket is held in the open position;

3. Further rotation of the shaft 45 will cause the lever 41 to be moved downwardly relative to the lever 40 thus drawing on the cord C and closing the bucket to grasp the articles;

4. Further rotation of the shaft 45 will cause both levers 40 and 41 to move downwardly tightening both cords B and C and thus lifting the bucket while grasping the articles;

5. At this point in the operations the cam 67 ,will re-engage the lever 65 and will press it forwardly, thus swinging the beam supporting shaft 19 to the right to swing the now loaded bucket to the extreme right-hand position over the delivery chute 50;

6. The last portion of the movement of the shaft 45 will cause the lever 41 to be lifted relative to the lever 40 and thus the cord 0 will allow the bucket to open and deposit the articles in the delivery chute 50; at the same time the crankarm 111 will move the switch arm 106 to move the switch to the open circuit position, thus stopping the motor and all of the mechanism with the bucket in theopen position over the delivery chute 50.

The articles which are deposited in the delivery chute 50 will pass downwardly through the delivery chute 51 to the discharge opening 52 ready to be received by the person operating the machine.

I prefer to normally close the delivery opening 52 by means of a door or closure 115 pivoted at 116 (see Fig. 2) and having a finger-piece 117 extending outwardly to be engaged by the hand of the person operating the machine, the door or closure 115 being normally urged to a closed position, (as shown in Fig. 1) by means of a suitable spring so that articles deposited in the delivery chute 51 will pass down the chute and come to rest upon the closure 115 and the person operating the machine may then move the closure 115 to open position and allow the articles to be deposited in the open discharge opening 52. I prefer to provide a glazed opening 118 immediately above the delivery opening 52 so thata person may view the articles resting upon the closure 115 and thus determine whether the article has passed completely through the delivery chute. This glazed opening 115 may be formed in any suitable manner, though I prefer to provide the construction shown particularly in Fig. 6, in which the front wall of the cabinet 1 is provided with a vertical slot 119 extending from the partition 3 through which the glass 120 may be passed to the opening 118. In order to secure the glass 120 in place, I prefer to provide a thin strip of wood 122 or other suitable material which will likewise be passed slidably down into the slot 119 until its upper edge is flush with the lower edge of the partition 3 and the same may be secured in this position by means of suitable screws 121 so that the upper edge 123 of the front wall of the cabinet and the upper edge of the strip 122 will be flush with each other and form the junction line between the front wallof the cabinet 1 and the frame of the door 9 so that when the door is in closedposition the glass 120 is positively held in place and its removal is prevented until the door 9 is opened.

I have also illustrated the collection receptacle 124 a being accessible to the front plate 53 of the cabinet, the receptacle constituting a rectangular slide or drawer which may be inserted from the front of the cabinet and may be locked in place therein by means of any suitable lock 125.

While I have shown and described the preferred embodiment of my invention, it is to be understood that I do not wish to be limited to any of the details of construction shown herein except as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a vending machine, an article supporting platform, a delivery chute, delivery mechanism including a grasping device, a beam for supporting said grasping device, means mounting said beam for pivotal movement forwardly and rearwardly of said platform to position said grasping device forwardly and rearwardly of said platform, means mounting said beam for lateral movement relative to said platform to position said grasping device laterally of said platform, and manually operable means for moving said beam forwardly ment of said beam to variably limit the extent of the lateral movement of said beam.

2. In a vending machine, an article supporting platform, a delivery chute, delivery mechanism including a grasping device, a beam for supporting said grasping device, means mounting said beam for pivotal movement in a horizontal plane for moving said grasping device laterally of said platform, an arm connected to said beam, stop means for engaging said arm, including a plate having a contact surface disposed at an angle to the movement of said arm, means mounting said stop plate for movement in a direction transverse to the direction of movement of said arm to present different portions of said angular contact surface for engagement by said arm to limit the lateral movement of said beam, and means for moving said stop means to any desired position.

3. In a vending machine, an article supporting platform, a delivery chute, delivery mechanism including a grasping device, a beam for supporting said grasping device, means pivotally mounting said beam for movement in a vertical plane to position said grasping device forwardly and rearwardly of said platform, means mounting said beam for pivotal movement in a horizontal plane for moving said grasping device laterally of said platform, a manually rotatable shaft, means windable on said shaft and connected to said beam for moving said beam in said vertical plane, stop means for engaging said beam to stop the lateral movement thereof, and means operable by rotation of said shaft for moving said stop means to a selected position to stop the lateral movement of said beam at a selected position.

4. In a vending machine, an article supporting platform, a delivery chute, delivery mechanism including a grasping device, a beam for supporting said grasping device, means pivotally mounting said beam for movement in a vertical plane to position said grasping device forwardly and rearwardly of said platform, means mounting said beam for pivotal movement in a horizontal plane for moving-said grasping device laterally of said platform, a manually rotatable shaft, means windable on said shaft and connected to said beam for moving said beam in said vertical plane, an arm rigidly connected to said beam, stop means for engaging said arm including a plate having a contact surface disposed at an angle to the movement of said arm, means mounting said stop plate for movement in a direction transverse to the direction of movement of said arm to present different portions of said angular contact surface for engagement by said arm to variably limit the lateral movement of said beam,

and means for moving said stop means to any desired position.

' 5. In a vending machine, an article supporting platform, a delivery chute, delivery mechanism including a grasping device, a beam for supporting said grasping device, means pivotally mounting said beam for movement in a vertical'plane to position said grasping device forwardly and rearwardly of said platform, means mounting said beam for pivotal movement in a horizontal plane for moving said grasping device laterally of said platform, a manually rotatable shaft, meanswindable on said shaft and connected to said beam for moving said beam in said vertical plane, an arm rigidly connected to said beam, stop means for engaging said arm including a plate having a contact surface disposed at an angle to the movement of said arm, means mounting said stop plate for movement in a direction transverse to the direction of movement of said arm to present different portions of said angular contact surface for engagement by said arm to variably limit the lateral movement of said beam, and means connecting said stop plate to said shaft to position said stop means at different positions when said shaft is rotated.

6. In a vending machine, an article supporting platform, a delivery chute, delivery mechanism including a grasping device, a beam for supporting said grasping device, means mounting said beam for pivotal movement in a horizontal plane for moving said grasping device laterally of said contact surface for engagement by said arm to limit the lateral movement of said beam, and

means for moving said stop means to any desired position. 1

CARL R. SIIVLPKINS. 

